Book Review - The World House

The World House by Guy Adams

Review by Jacqui Slaney

Another book I found for my Kindle, had not heard of the author, but the description caught my interest and too be honest the book was quite cheap, so I took a chance and bought it.

This is the description:

There is a box. Inside that box is a door. And beyond that door is a whole world.

In some rooms, forests grow. In others, animals and objects come to life. Elsewhere, secrets and treasures wait for the brave and foolhardy.

And at the very top of the house, a prisoner sits behind a locked door waiting for a key to turn. The day that happens, the world will end…

The story is an intriguing idea; a small box in our world can transport you to a large house, whose every room is a danger. In the glasshouse, a jungle grows where tribes of ex travellers have become cannibals. A bathroom contains a sea whose water can make you forget, a toy room, which it might be better to avoid all together and a library where the books are of your own life. The reader follows a few small groups of seeming unrelated people that unwillingly travel to the house. Each group initially begins at a different location, so you get to see how dangerous this house can be especially when one group for speed goes outside the house to travel to an upper balcony.

This is no cosy little fantasy as it is quite a dark story at times, especially with some of the things that occur.  There are many characters, and though it is easy to keep track of who people are due to the different groups, I found that some were quite similar in their attitudes and speech, which did become a little confusing. To be fair to the author though, this was his first novel, and having to make every character an individual is a hard job. I also found some of the characters reactions to their travel to the house and then through their different adventures was a little surprising. If I was transported to a strange place, and then woke up with someone about to eat me, I think I would have had much more of a reaction and been much more upset!

I still liked many of these characters though, especially an autistic girl called Sophie whose character is cleverly used in the story. The plot is entertaining and compelling; I ended up even when I was not reading the book, thinking about what would happen next. The ending I felt was a little of a let down, it felt almost as if the author had suddenly decided to make this a book one so the story seemed suddenly rushed towards the conclusion.  Ignoring all the flaws though in the writing, I still enjoyed this book and will definitely read book 2.

7 out of 10